The Future of Consumerist

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But Paypal doesn’t like hookers. So when they discovered that his site was primarily used to advise both men and women on how to engage in prostitution safely, they shut down his account. They also froze a transfer that he had made the day previously, claiming that they could hold on to his money for up to six months for no particular reason.

Now Mark’s out for blood. And we can’t really say we blame him. Regardless of what you think of prostitution, he is not using Paypal to conduct business that is illegal. Paypal, in short, has taken the hardline on a moral position and have decided to hold on to Mark’s $400 bucks for six months to teach him a lesson, or as they claim, “to cover potential complaints.” Right.

Yes, it’s all well within the terms of their EULA, for whatever that’s worth. But when all it takes is one uptight Paypal employee pulling her panties over her head in moral outrage to completely freeze your assets, isn’t it time to trust your money to someone else?

EDIT: Well, apparently, this is a couple years old. We admit we didn’t check the date… on the other hand, no less than three separate tipsters emailed us about this over the weekend, so we hope we can be excused for thinking it’s current. It must be doing the rounds.